This invention relates generally to logic circuits, and more particularly to domino logic circuits.
With the growing complexity of modern computer systems, designers are constantly seeking more efficient methods to reduce power and cost, while increasing speed. Generally, the major components in a computer system are formed from the combination of millions of logic gates. Typically, the power, cost, and speed of the components correlate to the operation efficiency of these logic gates. By significantly improving the performance of the logic gate, the overall performance of the computer system can be improved.
One type of well known logic circuit is a domino logic circuit which has a series of logic gates coupled together. Specifically, domino logic circuits have dynamic gates and static gates coupled together in a serial fashion such that the gates alternate between dynamic and static. Typically, the dynamic gates are simple and fast because they do not use p-type metal oxide semiconductor (xe2x80x9cPMOSxe2x80x9d) transistors to propagate an input signal.
Rather, the dynamic gates use a PMOS transistor only for precharging each of the dynamic gates. Conversely, conventional static gates are more complex and include a complementary PMOS network, which is comprised of a plurality of interconnected PMOS transistors. The PMOS network results in an increase in capacitance experienced during the evaluation phase. The increased capacitance results in slower switching speeds, which results in lower system performance.
Moreover, conventional static gates often include two or more PMOS which are stacked together, which requires that the transistors be upsized, which further increases the capacitance experienced through the gate. Therefore, conventional static gates are known to act as a bottle neck for the domino logic circuit.